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Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan: Debunking the “flip-flopping” myth

By Crystal Wright

Crystal Wright is an occassional contributor to The Root DC and is the editor of the political site “Conservative Black Chick”.

Here we go again. The “Obama Choir” is spreading misinformation about Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican
(Justin Sullivan - GETTY IMAGES)
presidential nominee, trying to drive a wedge between the candidate and his recently announced running mate, Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. It’s all to distract the American people from the fact that President Obama has no plan for creating jobs and getting the economy back on track.

This time, liberals accuse Romney of “flip-flopping” on his support of Ryan’s budget. An opinion piece that appeared in The RootDC Tuesday spun fiction, arguing that Romney is “distancing himself from Ryan’s budget plan.” This just isn’t true. From the start, Romney has consistently supported Ryan’s plan.

“I’m very supportive of the Ryan budget plan,” Mitt Romney said March 20th in Chicago, as quoted by the New Yorker. He added later in Wisconsin: “I think it’d be marvelous if the Senate were to pick up Paul Ryan’s plan and adopt it and pass it along to the President.”

Then, in talking points issued to supporters after announcing Ryan, the Romney campaign stated: “Gov. Romney applauds Paul Ryan for going in the right direction with his budget, and as president he will be putting together his own plan for cutting the deficit and putting the budget on a path to balance.”

Many liberals have argued that this is an example of Romney distancing himself from Ryan’s budget. How? Romney is now the presumptive GOP nominee and has the opportunity to craft his own budget plan. He is simply giving himself space to create his own vision.

There’s no smoking gun here. Nowhere in the talking points, which Obama supporters have used to cry “flip-flop”, does the Romney campaign say the presumptive nominee rejects Ryan’s budget plan. In fact, the campaign points out that the two men “aren’t going to have the same view on every issue” but they believe in cutting America’s debt and creating a “path to prosperity.”

As with all presidential tickets, Ryan will ultimately defer to Romney’s own vision. Indeed, at a recent campaign stop in Miami, Romney said, “I’m sure there are places that my budget is different than his, but we’re on the same page.”

But that isn’t good enough for liberal bloggers, who are looking to create a wedge where there isn’t one. The Huffington Post ranted another point in the memo was proof positive Romney was “distancing himself from the Ryan plan.” The memo said:

“Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have different views on some policy areas -- like Medicare spending, entitlement reform, labor, etc. -- do you think those differences are going to hurt or help?”

But Romney’s campaign Web site makes his support of Ryan’s Medicare reform plan crystal clear: “Shortly after Mitt presented the proposal described here, Congressman Paul Ryan and Senator Ron Wyden introduced a bipartisan proposal that almost precisely mirrors Mitt’s ideas.”

So, what’s at work here? Democrats are searching for issues to distract from the poor economy and unemployment rate that continues to remain high. Meanwhile, one out of six Americans live at the povertly level, and 54 percent are receiving some kind of government check.

Democrats are also running from Obama’s record: the president has added more than $5 trillion to the nation’s deficit while Ryan’s bold budget plan would cut $5 trillion from our debt. Ryan would reform the tax code to two brackets while Obama wants to raise taxes on higher earners and eliminate many of their deductions. Obama wants to trim $248 billion from Medicare mostly through premium and co-pay rate hikes on higher earners. By giving people younger than 55 the option of receiving a Medicare subsidy to shop for their own insurance and raising the eligibility age to 67, Ryan’s budget plan would cost $205 billion less than Obama’s.

As voters hear Ryan speak more about our country’s crushing debt, the “real” Mitt Romney and the GOP ticket will jump start the country’s path “Forward.”

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